Tennessee man claiming to be member of ISIS in jail after threatening to behead his neighbors

An image grab taken from a propaganda video released on March 17, 2014 by the Islamic State's Al-Furqan Media allegedly shows IS fighters raising their weapons as they stand on a vehicle mounted with the trademark jihadist flag in Iraq (AFP)

A Tennessee man was in custody on Thursday and facing criminal charges after claiming to be a member of ISIS and threatening to behead his neighbors and burn down their homes, police said.

Tullahoma Police Chief Paul Blackwell said the man – Terry Wayne McCullough, 59 – is a known troublemaker but that the threats had to be treated seriously.

“We’ve dealt with him quite a few times over the years,” Blackwell said. “Most of the issues we’ve had to deal with him have been minor, misdemeanor charges.”

McCullough is in the Coffee County Jail on $10,000 bond and charged with criminal conspiracy. He is due in court Oct. 23.

Blackwell said that when McCullough “described ISIS, he was calling it ISSI.”

Tullahoma Police Officer James Tate, who arrested McCullough on Sunday, wrote in his report that the man admitted making threats and said he would carry them out and said that his next target was Nashville, about 75 miles northwest of Tullahoma.

McCullough “stated he was a member of ISSI and they were going to clean up the world … He was going to cut my head off, because he hated me and the uniform I wore and all police,” Tate wrote.